Delhi, with a population of over 27 million people, is considered the second most populated city in the world after Tokyo. Delhi being the capital of India has marked itself in the world with some great achievements in recent times. Mention may be made of GMR Group-Led Delhi International Airport Ltd. which announced that Indira Gandhi International Airport ( IGIA ) had become the world’s second best airport in the largest airport category with a passenger capacity of over 40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) as per Airport Council International (ACI) ASQ rankings. Also, during the recent years, India has become the country with most number of women pilots in the world. Delhi ranked 44th among world’s 50 ‘future ready’ cities. Among the Indian states, Delhi Police is among the top effective and best police service in which Tamil Nadu tops the list.
With such positive achievements, there are also many negative aspects of the city. Delhi is considered as one of the most polluted cities in the world during recent years as per World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics. When it comes to traffic accidents or tragedies, Delhi tops the list in the country with the most number of road accidents which account for at least 5 deaths daily. Many other crimes have also increased over the years like robbery, murder, discrimination, mob justice and most importantly crime against women in various forms like rape, murder and so on. Multiple reasons could be given for the mishaps.
Firstly, it is the rules and regulations that many residents of Delhi have neglected. Starting from traffic rules, most of the people seems to disobey the traffic system or rules signified upon the roads and in many parking areas. Signboards writing No Pressure Horn, Drive Slow, School Ahead, No Parking and many others seems to be of no use in the city as almost every people never cared about it. Many other rules and laws are also denied like dominating by men, the rights or reserves for women which is kept by the Government or Constitution for the safety and empowerment of women in terms of jobs and travelling in buses or trains. Discrimination and racism against people from other countries and also from our own country especially from North-Eastern states still takes place at a high rate, even after the announcement of certain rules or law and penalties for denial of law by the Central Government and State Government on account of discrimination.
Secondly, it is the morality of citizens including dirty-politics and many other organisations or institutions ( governmental or non-governmental ) that is also responsible for certain negative achievements of the city. For example, certain medicines or drugs are not sold at pharmacies or chemists shops without prescriptions from doctors on account of misused of the drugs that led to social problems. But still tobacco products, weeds, wines or beers are selling widely and openly in the city and even advertised as if it was made for people’s good. Also many people worshipped goddesses at home and temples with a mindset of giving respect to women and kept women in a high status at the socitey. But still many women are tortured and harrassed in the city and nowadays, even animals safety are more valued than safety of women among the society.
Sometimes it feels like Mob Justice is must needed for instant judgement in cases like that of Nirbhaya’s case , so that the culprits or rapists could have been punished immediately on the spot. However Mob Justice also becomes cruel in cases like that of Ankit Saxena’s in which he was stabbed to death by his girlfriend’s family for being a Hindu and having relationship with the girl ( a Muslim ). Even police or laws cannot solve such crimes without public support. Public should always be alert to help someone in danger or critical situation.
An important solution, we can consider for the arising problems is ‘ being responsible’. If responsibility is considered as a must do or mandatory duty for all of us, it will surely be the first step towards making a better Delhi. For example, if a person driving a vehicle considers following traffic rules and having a safe journey is his or her responsibility instead of taking oppurtunities to drove over denying the rules, the percentage of road accidents will drop down. Also while driving if people considers giving priority to the emergency services such as ambulances or fire services as their responsibility to save others instead of overtaking or blocking them, then thousands of life can be save by minimising time constraints. If an auto driver or a bus driver or any other passenger considers women’s safety as their own responsibility instead of misbehaving or taking physical advantage on women, the crimes on women inside passenger services can be stop at once. If a poor person, a person living in slum area or roadside person considers cleanliness of the city as their own responsibility when they get free foods from certain ceremonies or occasions instead of throwing the food wastes and plates used here and there, it would be one part of making the city a clean one and also will be of showing gratitude to the food servers or the society. These are few examples of how being responsible is a major step towards bringing up Delhi to a whole new level.
It is not only the responsibility of Government or any other individual, it should be a collective one, we can’t just rely on the government. One should think it is the betterment for us where we live in, it is our property and we should maintain it. Countries like Japan, Singapore, Korea considers responsibility as their first choice for success and Tokyo, the capital of Japan, which was the most dangerous place to live after the Hiroshima & Nagashaki incident ( 1945 ), is now declared the safest city in the world to live. If a city of a small country like Japan could make it happened, why can’t we ?